66: Crazy Beast King Palm Pet 6

The cold moonlight also fell on the outskirts of the Wolf Clan's territory, far from the Royal Court.

There was no majesty or warmth of the Royal Tent here, only crude, rough wooden shelters, muddy ground emitting a foul stench, and the pervasive smell of sweat, blood, and despair in the air.

This was a gathering place for slave trade and forced labor, the most naked display of the law of the jungle.

Bai Shuang huddled, trembling, in a corner of a damp, moldy pile of straw.

Her once neat clothes were now tattered, covered in mud and dark red bloodstains. Her exposed skin was covered with whip marks, bruises, and raw wounds from rough ropes, burning with pain.

Her once carefully styled hair was now like dry grass, clinging messily to her sweaty, disheveled face.

She had escaped! She had finally escaped that terrifying, crazy Beast King Lie Xiao, escaped that Royal Court which was like a hellish prison! She thought she was running towards freedom and a way out…

However, reality dealt her the cruelest blow.

Not long after escaping the Royal Court’s sphere of influence, she was captured by a patrol of Wolf Clan soldiers.

Her human identity and relatively beautiful appearance, in the brutal Beast Clan territories, brought her no preferential treatment. Instead, she was immediately branded a “prime slave” and dragged like livestock to this filthy slave market.

“Tsk, a delicate human female, quite rare.” A Wolf Clan slave trader with fangs and a scar on his face roughly lifted Bai Shuang’s chin with his coarse, greasy fingers. His cloudy eyes gleamed with greed and lust. “Can she work? Or just warm a bed?”

The surrounding beastmen burst into boisterous laughter, their malicious gazes cutting into Bai Shuang like knives.

“No… don’t touch me! Let go of me!” Bai Shuang shrieked in terror, struggling with all her might.

She was a reborn person! How could she suffer such humiliation!

“Slap!”

“Stinking slave! Still dare to resist?” The slave trader sneered, whipping her back again with a backhand strike. The rough leather whip tore through her thin clothing, leaving a gruesome red mark on her fair skin.

“Once you’re in here, if you’re a dragon, you’ll coil; if you’re a tiger, you’ll crouch! Behave yourself!”

Bai Shuang was in such pain she almost fainted, tears of humiliation and fear streaming out.

She had never suffered such beatings and insults! In Lie Xiao’s Royal Court, although she was imprisoned and treated as a sacrifice, Lie Xiao… Lie Xiao at least never tortured her like this!

He was just indifferent, just ignored her… but now, these lowly beastmen dared to trample on her like this!

The following days were like purgatory.

She was locked in a narrow, foul-smelling iron cage, squeezed together with several other equally filthy slaves.

Every day, she received only a small amount of spoiled food and murky, dirty water. Any resistance or disobedience was met with ruthless whipping and kicking.

“Hurry up and work! What are you dawdling for!” The overseer’s crude roar was accompanied by the whistling of a whip.

Bai Shuang was forced to carry stones heavier than her own weight. The heavy burden made her unable to straighten her back, and new wounds quickly appeared on her slender arms. Sweat, blood, and tears mixed together, blurring her vision.

“What are you looking at? Lowly human!” A burly Bear Clan overseer, seeing her slow down, sneered and walked over, raising his huge foot and kicking her hard in the side of her waist!

“Ah—!” Bai Shuang screamed, kicked away like a broken kite, falling heavily into the mud. The intense pain made her curl into a ball, almost unable to breathe. A searing pain came from her ribs; they might be broken.

The cold mud and water soaked through her thin clothes, and the biting chill made her teeth chatter. She lay in the mud, without even the strength to get up. Around her were the beastmen’s wanton mockery and disdainful gazes, piercing her heart like needles.

At this moment, the intense pain and bone-deep humiliation engulfed her like a cold tide.

In her hazy consciousness, Lie Xiao’s stern, violent, handsome face, and the days in the Royal Court—though imprisoned, at least safe, clean, and where no one dared to casually humiliate her—appeared vividly before her eyes.

She thought of Wen Ci… the woman who replaced her as a sacrifice, it seemed… was not immediately executed? And was even kept by Lie Xiao?

Why?

A sharp, tear-filled question, like a venomous snake, coiled into her confused mind.

Lie Xiao, though terrifying, though a madman… he at least… disdained to torture a helpless captive like this?

He even… perhaps… adhered to some twisted bottom line of the strong towards the weak? He wouldn’t let his beastmen subordinates casually humiliate her like the lowest of trash?

But here, in the hands of these so-called “free” beastmen, she was worse than the lowest trash! Her dignity, her body, her everything, were trampled in the mud, wantonly abused!

Regret, like cold vines, for the first time so clearly entwined around her heart, with sharp thorns.

Could it be… could escaping Lie Xiao… have been a mistake?

Could it be… that hellish, crazy Beast King she desperately fled… was actually… the best for her?

This thought made her body go cold, more so than the mud and cold wind. Desperate tears mixed with bloodstains, silently falling, dripping into the dirty soil beneath her.

The moonlight remained cold, illuminating the Beast King being gently comforted deep within the Royal Court, and also illuminating the fugitive on the brink of collapse in the mud.

The trajectory of fate presented a starkly ironic contrast at this moment.

***

Lie Xiao was completely lost.

Wen Ci’s gentleness, like the most deadly poison, silently seeped into his dry, violent soul, nurturing a never-before-seen vine called “love.”

This vine grew wildly, entwining his wild heart, but it also brought an unprecedented sense of confinement that both terrified him and filled him with sweet contentment.

He could not tolerate anyone taking even a shred of Wen Ci’s attention.

His love, bearing the heavy imprint of beast nature, was possessiveness, imprisonment, the instinct to destroy anything that came near.

The atmosphere in the Royal Court became subtle and tense. All the Beast Clan Warriors clearly felt that their King had changed.

He was still powerful and majestic; a single glance from him could make the fiercest warrior tremble in silence.

But that suffocating, potentially explosive rage seemed to be suppressed by something deeper, stickier, like a ferocious beast bound by chains.

And the other end of that chain was tied only to the slender wrist of the human woman named Wen Ci.

Lie Xiao guarded Wen Ci almost constantly.

The Royal Tent became forbidden territory; apart from necessary guards, any male beastman who dared to glance at Wen Ci when she appeared would immediately feel the cold, bone-chilling, murderous gaze from the throne.

That gaze was more terrifying than the sharpest blade.

He began clumsily, almost obsessively, to collect everything he thought Wen Ci might like.

Mountains of moonstones emitting a soft glow, colorful and priceless rare bird feathers, and even exotic flowers and plants picked from the most dangerous beast territories, still dewy with morning dew… these treasures were continuously sent into the Royal Tent, piled at Wen Ci’s feet.

Lie Xiao would sit nearby, his golden vertical pupils fixed on her without blinking, with an almost childlike anticipation, waiting for her to show even a hint of a smile.

Wen Ci always smiled gently, thanked him softly, her fingertips brushing over the cold gems or delicate petals.

Her smile was Lie Xiao’s only antidote, instantly calming the surging possessiveness and unease in his heart.

However, this tranquility was fragile.

During a tribal gathering, a Leopard Clan Warrior, known for his bravery and handsomeness, was captivated by Wen Ci’s demeanor as she passed by. He couldn’t help but step forward, offering a string of freshly hunted purple berries, still dewy, his eyes showing pure admiration. “Miss Wen Ci, these… are very sweet.”

At that moment, time seemed to freeze.

The tenderness on Lie Xiao’s face vanished instantly, replaced by a mountain-shattering, tsunami-like rage!

His golden pupils contracted into the most dangerous vertical slits in an instant, and a violent killing intent exploded like a tangible shockwave! He didn’t even let out a warning roar, his figure transforming into a blurry golden lightning bolt, with a scream that tore through the air, rushing straight towards that Leopard Clan Warrior!

“My King! Mercy!” The Leopard Clan Warrior only had time to let out a short shriek, his pupils reflecting Lie Xiao’s ferocious beast claws and murderous face.